Winter Gingerbread Houses

The gingerbread creations are fashioned by Aaron Morgan, executive pastry chef. Morgan is co-author, with Paige Gilchrist, of Making Great Gingerbread Houses: Delicious Designs from Cabins to Castles, from Lighthouses to Tree Houses (Lark Books).

Candy-decked houses, amid drifts of icing snow delight both young and old and are a homey way to adorn a mantel or deck the center of the holiday table. Morgan offers the following tips for creating a gingerbread house:

• Use cardboard to create templates for the sides and roof of your house. Tape them together to make sure they fit. Adjusting cardboard patterns is far easier than correcting cut dough.
  
• Keep gingerbread dough as cold as possible while rolling and cutting. It will hold its shape better.
  
• Use plenty of dusting flour when rolling dough so it won't stick. Dust off excess with a pastry brush before baking.
  
• Cut around templates with a dough wheel or pizza cutter. It won't stretch or stress the dough as much as a knife will.
  
• Bake all gingerbread pieces until they are hard and deep brown. Soft gingerbread houses are likely to crumble.
  
• Use royal icing if you plan to eat the house; white glue if it is purely decorative.
  
• To create a lasting bond, royal icing should be moderately stiff.
  
• Cover royal icing with a damp towel when using and store in an air-tight container.
  
• Use boxes, cans, cups, glasses and bowls, to support gingerbread connections until the icing dries.
  
• Do not attach roof pieces to structure until base is set and dry.

There is no right or wrong when making a gingerbread creation. Cover your mistakes with icing and candies and make having fun the real goal of the project.

Heidi Jewett, director of recreation at Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, N.Y., shares a kids' project, using graham crackers and royal icing to make mini-houses.

To make royal icing, slowly beat together 1 pound confectioners (powdered) sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar and 3 egg whites until stiff peaks form. Put icing in a pastry bag or plastic bag with a small hole cut in a bottom corner.

(If you plan to eat the houses, use meringue powder, found in baking shops and some supermarkets, instead of egg whites. The very young, very old, pregnant women and those with chronic illnesses should not eat uncooked eggs.)

Use the icing to glue four square graham crackers together to form a square box. Allow to dry. Stand two graham cracker squares on their sides and glue them together to form a V-shape roof. Support the graham crackers with glasses or other household items until the icing hardens.

Glue the roof to the house and allow to harden.

Decorate the house with candy.

The gingerbread recipe that follows is one developed by the makers of Necco Wafers in Cambridge, Mass., to celebrate the company's 150th anniversary in 1997. The dough bakes into a firm, sturdy cookie, and makes enough dough for one house plus accessories, such as chimneys, fences and architectural details.

You may build your house in stages over several days. Bake one day, build the next and add decorations even later.

Gingerbread Dough

Recipe adapted from the Necco Candy Co.

Ingredients:

1 cup solid shortening
1 cup sugar
1-1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
5-1/2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
3 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. nutmeg

Preparation:

In advance, make templates for house pieces. Cut a side wall pattern 7 inches wide and 4 inches high. Cut an end wall pattern 5-1/2 inches and 8 inches high at the point. Cut a door in one side wall and windows in side wall and end wall patterns. Make a roof panel pattern, 8-1/2 inches wide and 6 inches high. When cutting out the gingerbread, you will cut two of each pattern. Make patterns for fences, chimneys and architectural details, such as shutters and fan lights.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl, thoroughly blend shortening and sugar. Add molasses, egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. In another bowl, sift dry ingredients. Gradually stir dry ingredients into molasses mixture. When mixture becomes too stiff to stir with spoon, work dough with hands until completely blended. Separate dough into 4 balls. Wrap each in plastic wrap and chill a minimum of one hour. (Dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.) One ball will be used for side walls, one for end walls, one for roof panels and the other for making fences or other additions.

Place a disk of chilled dough directly on aluminum foil cut to fit your baking sheet. Cover dough with plastic wrap and roll to 1/4 inch thickness.

Remove plastic wrap, place a pattern piece on dough, leaving room to cut another identical piece from the dough. There should be at least a 1/2-inch border around pieces. Cut around edges of pattern. Using your fingers or a small knife, remove scrap pieces of dough, leaving cut pieces intact on foil. Cut out doors and windows. Remove pattern pieces and place foil directly on a flat baking sheet.

Bake at 325 degrees, 10-25 minutes, depending on size of pieces. Gingerbread will darken, especially around edges, and feel firm to the touch. Remove sheet from oven and allow gingerbread pieces to cool on sheet. Gently peel gingerbread from foil.

Repeat the cutting and baking process making the other walls, the roof panels and fences or other additions.

You may store the baked pieces lying flat in a cool dry place or freeze in an appropriate container.

When ready to construct the house, use royal icing to join the pieces, allowing the side and end walls to dry before adding the roof panels. Construct the house on a flat unbreakable tray, baking sheet, strong piece of cardboard or piece of plywood, using royal icing to "glue" the bottom of the house to its base.

When the house is thoroughly dry, use royal icing to attach candy, cookies, nuts and other edible decor to the house. Use royal icing to pipe outlines around doors and windows and to create icicles and snow drifts. A light dusting of granulated sugar can give the ice and snow a nice glitter.

Use additional candy, cookies and royal icing to create the "grounds" around the house.

You may tint icing with food coloring to add contrast and use colored sugar as well. Store house in a cool dry place for up to four weeks.

Yield: 1 7x5-1/2x8-inch house, plus accessories